The Last E-mail

Hey Everybody!

Well This is going to be my last week in the mission field. I have today tomorrow and wednesday to proselyte, so I have to take full advantage, and then on thursday I go to Montevideo to go through the temple in castellano one more time and have a conmoving noche de hogar with President and Hermana Eddy. Wow writing that suddenly made me feel incredibly Meloncholy. It is definitley going to be a tear fest in the airport on friday night.

I have to say that I really love missionary work, Because I have really come to love so many things as a missionary. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and feel like I have come to develop a personal relationship with and am grateful for everything he has done for me. I love the doctrine of the gospel and its beauty and perfection, and I love new convets becuasue they are such special people. I love President Mark Eddy and his family because he is one of my biggest male role models after My dad My grandpas and prophet Nelson. I love Uruguay and Its wonderful people. I feel so sad because I feel like a part of my heart is going to have to break off and stay here with them, but I guess that is okay because they have made it a lot bigger and a lot fuller. I love all of my mission companions and comrades and feel like I have made life long friends even though they live all over the americas and europe. And I have come to love the Holy scriptures especially The Book of Mormon and the New Testament.

Well I would like to thank everyone for giving me so much support and for suffering through my Emails. You guys are great. Well on Saturday at 11:24 a.m. I will finally step foot on the greatest of all of the earths regional political units and hug my family. They are the best. I gave the best sacrament meeting talk of my life yesterday so this sunday I will have to try to top it. Love you guys.

P.s. Funny story so I really havn't collected many souveneirs but I have always wanted a Peñarol flag and have never been able to find one. So as I was rounding the corner to come and write I saw a store that was selling a Peñarol flag. I was expecting it to be at leat three or four hundred pesitos but it only cost two hundred mangos. So now I can represent the biggest athletic club on earth.

1) Me in front of La Cucha. This is really funny if you ever served a mission in Uruguay

It only takes three minutes and forty seconds to read fist nefi 1

Hey everybody,

We did a lot of looking this week, and it resulted in a lot of finding. I won't go into to much detail about anyone because we are not really sure what is going to happen with them yet. Also we saw some people fill a horse cart with dirt, but it got stuck in a ditch and the horse could not get out, so we got behind and pushed and the horse got unstuck. Probably something that will never happen to me again.

Anyway preaching the gospel is great.

Love,

Elder Christensen

Hi

Hi,

Well Changes came around. Below is a picture of my new companion Elder Samuel Grajeda. He is from Dallas. He always introduces himself to people as " Soy mexicano pero vivo in tejas" But I think that is a lie because he is more american than apple pie ( a dearly missed and well beloved american delicacy) he has 18 months in the mission field and likes to play trumpet and listen to religious discourses.

anyway We have had an interesting week. It got really cold again this week. We had to drop most of our investigators and are now looking for new ones, but we have this one girl named Elena who will probably get baptized in a couple of weeks. Also Elder Córdovas new comp is a short term missionary from Aeroparque in Montevideo named Carlos Zapata. I guess there were an odd number of missionaries in the mission so the assistants just called him up and said " HEy y'all want to me a missiary for six weeks?" And he was like " Ta, dale, I don't have a better way to spend my time". But it is great because I love hanging out with uruguayos.

Well keep it real.

Love Elder Christensen

 1) A funny picture Elder Lockhart sent Elder Helske before he died

2) Carlos

Changes

Well Changes rolled around again. Elder Hilton went on sunday to whitewash Las Piedras and Elder Helskes comp went to be mission Secretary( second time that has happend to him). So I am just cruising around Durazno with Elder Mark Klint Helske teaching faith and repentance. It is a ton of fun. My New and final companion will get here tommorrow. His Name is Elder Grajeda, and I think he is from Texas.

Well make sure to keep the commandments.

Love Elder Christensen

 1) Hopping on a train

2)Nalder and Helske

3) Elder Córdova made seviche

Hi

Hi everbody.

We here are all super sad about Uruguay staying outside of the world cup. Its because Cavani didn't play.

But that isn't the important part the important part is preaching the gospel. We have had an amazing week this week. President Eddy came throught town and gave an inspiring conference and ever since then things have been flying. We are finding a ton of investigators from good references and things and have been teaching a lot of lessons. Some of our main investigators are Antonella, the pareja of a less active member, María also the pareja of a less active member, Elida and silvina, the freinds of a recent convert, Florencia, the neice of a recent convert, Gabriela who's husband was a member of the church but recently passed away, and the other maría, also recently widowed, who is the freind of a recent convert and his recently reactivated mom. So what is the moral of this story? If you are a member of the church have references and go with the missionaries to teach them. It works.

I am not going to send any pictures today because we have been spending the day in paso de los toros, and the cíber is really slow. But It is the coolest city I have been in yet.

Love Elder Christensen

Hi

Hi Everbody,

Well we had a crazy week. First of all Tabárez got baptized this week, he got his act together stopped drinking and smoking and on monday night told us that he was ready so we spent all week getting him prepared. He is really happy. He decided to join the church because he has seen huge changes in the lives of some of his closest freinds ever since the got baptized a few weeks ago and even though he struggles to read because his vision is bad he has gained a great testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. He is fifty and works as a city garbage collector and likes to make silly jokes.

We did a lot of traveling this week. We visited three diferent cities in our zone in three days and it has killed our proselyting time. On friday we were in a town called Sarandí del Yi for a thing. We were there when URUGUAY BEAT PORTUGAL  2- 0! It was probably the most commotion that place has seen in years. We were walking down one of the main streets when they won and I am pretty sure that everybody who owns a car in that place made a caravan and were honking their horns and waiving their flags behind them. Now we just have to beat Francia this friday at 11.

So yeah, Love you guys! Have a great week.

Elder Christensen

1) Brother Heber Daniel Tabárez with his freinds Cecilia, Claudia, and Milagros the day of his baptism.

2) A chill perro

3) Sarandí del Yi

1-0

Hey everbody,

first of all

Uruguay 1, Arabia Saudita 0

And according to the commotion outside we just beat Rusia 2-0. Now España is going to get what's coming them. Or maybe Portugal depending on how their games go.

But anywho it was an interesting week this week. We are teaching this cool investgator named Tabárez who is medio gaucho. He used to be in the uruguayan cavalry and did peace missions in the congo. He has a strong testimony of the book of mormon because even though he barley sees well enough to read he has some close freinds who just got baptized and it has made an enourmaous difference in their lives. And he feels the spirit very strongly when he goes to church and things. So we will see what happens.

Had another fun experience last night. It was 8:30 last night and we were almost as far away from the house as we could get when we see this really sketchy looking guy stop in the street and look back at us. Then we catch up to him and he says " wow good thing I ran into you guys". And then he just breaks down and starts sobbing and telling his whole life story about how he is a drug addict and that he was on drugs right then and  how his señora is alcoholic and that they always fight and that he tries to work hard and do things right but that nothing ever goes well for him. So then he walked with like twenty minutes with us down some unlit back roads and calmed down alot. I was pretty tense the whole time but Elder Hilton was pretty tranquil. Anyway he wants us to come teach him so we will see what we can do.

Have a good week.

Elder Christensen

Vamos arriba Uruguay

Dearly beloved freinds and family.

First of all I just want to say that

¡URUGUAY  1!

¡EGIPTO 0!

¡ VAMOS ARRIBA CELESTE! ¡ VIVA EL ORGULLO CHARRUA!

We were doing our weekly planning session this last friday when all of a sudden we heard many explosions and gunshots and sirens and full throughted shouting and felt the need to duck under the table because the house was shaking a little bit, but also felt the contentment to know that Uruguay had scored on Egypt and the burning certainty that the Celeste will go on to win the world cup this year.

But other than that it has very very very very chilly this week. When the sun is out for a short period each day it is too hot to where a coat but when it goes away it is imposible to keep your whole body warm all at once. I honestly havn't been sleeping very well because the cold keeps waking me up early every morning even though I have a nice duck down sleeping back. But not complaing because it is worth it to be able to preach the gospel of Christ all day Every day.

We have a ton of investigators and New converts here, and we are in the biggest ward I have ever been in so there is a ton of work to do here. It is really refreshing to look back every sunday and see a full chapel with tons of young people. Our ward mission leader is always amazing. His name is Hermano Pedro Herreros and he is from Valencia spain so he speaks in vosotros and with a funny accent. But every time we set up a solid appoint ment with an investigator we send him a text and he contracts a ward member to go with us.

But yeah

Love you guys.

Elder Christensen

 1) Elder Lemos forgot to shave and wear a tie this day because in Sarand´' del Yi there are no street lights so he couldn't see himself

 2) Elder Córdova made us cow heart with spinach rice today. Super good. I have decided that in terms of culinary excellency it goes Thai food, then southern food, then peruvian food.

3) this is Elder Córdova and Elder Nalder who we live with

Durazno

Hey everybody,

Well It was super sad to leave Rocha but my new area is really great as well. It is about a three hour drive strait north from Montevideo. My new companion is Elder Hilton from Santa rosa California/ slash also Utah. We got replaced in Rocha by Elder Harper from Las Vegas, Gringolandia, and Elder Ibarra from Lima, Perusalén, and they seem on track do get my old investigators batizados.. It is really cool as well because I am now in the zone with my beloved son Elder Helske now serving in Paso de los Toros, and Elder Lemos who is really cool and is serving in Sarandí del Yi.

Let me  know if you have any questions.

Love Elder Christensen.

Eric and I after his baptism

Elder Hilton 

Elder Helske and Elder Granillo. I have more time on the mission thatn both of them combined. Crazy

Rocha Deleted

Hey everybody,

Well we have had some major curveballs thrown at us this week but I will get to that later. So a report about the Elder Holland conference. It was really cool. All 350+ missionaries from the Uruguay Montevideo and Uruguay Montevideo Oeste mission got to go up and shake his hand, and then he taught us about a lot of things especially about how preach my gospel was written so that missionaries would study it and be converted in order to later convert others and how we have to decide right now if we are going to be on the Lord's side or not, and also about the effective use of the book of mormon. But the most impressive moment was when he left his apostolic blessing that we as a mission would be able to progress and do even more than we are already doing, and that people would know that they had been in the presence of servants of God just by meeting us among other things. So that was really cool. Also he mentioned that we have two of the very best mission presidents in the whole church, and I have only met maybe three or four mission presidents in my life but I affirm that claim. Also Sister Teixeira who was also there and spoke sends her love.

So we had a great experience this week. Josè and Irma after a number of weeks investigating got baptized. Josè asked me to baptize him which was really cool because I have never gotten a chance to do that before. They basically said that when they were baptized they felt this incredible feeling like all of this weight just disapeared. It is really cool to see there testimonies grow and they are going to be great members of the branch here.

So this is where things start getting a little interesting. Our investigators Eric and Dayana were supposed to get baptized today on Elder Hemeyers last day. What happens is that Eric had already been to church a bunch and taken the missionary lessons in Montevideo, but then he moved here to get married, and we miraculously found them looking for a less active member. So dayana has only been twice to church and has to come three times to get baptized and they didn't come this week because they had to go to the hospital on sunday morning. So yesterday we were giving the numbers to the assistants and

Oh emergency, presidente Serròn is coming right now to get the key to the secretary office and I have to get off. Any way Eric and Dayana are getting baptised today anyway and we are filling up the font right now. We are getting whitewashed out of Rocha which I am super sad about and I am going tomorrow to Durazno because they closed La Paloma to missionary work and the zone of Rocha is changing from a zone to a district.

So yeah

1)Baptism.

2)Me, Cristofer, and Flopy

Holland Conference

Hey everybody. 

Elder Holland came and spoke to the two missions here yesterday. It was definitley one of the greatest privelages of my life to here a living prophet speak to us face to face. We went to Maldonado today to visit some of E' Hemeyers converts so I don't have any time and will tell you all about it next week.

Love Eli

1)Josè e Irma got married at the judicial building this week

2) Elder Rodriguezth from Barcthelona. He likes pizza

3) A distant picture of Punta del Este

Hi

Hey everybody,

I hope you are all having a great monday. We had a pretty good week last week. We are seeing a lot of progress with our investigators. Are main core of investigators right now is basically four couples, There is José e Irma who are getting married this friday and baptized next week, then we have Eric and Dayana. Eric and I share a birthday so I am probably going to just go hang out with him when that comes around. Then there is Denis and Yanina. Denis ran some competitive races in the states a few years ago, and didn't really beleice in anything before, but he came to church yesterday and was really into it. Then we have José y Melisa. José has a lot of questions and reads El Libro de Mormón a lot but wants to take things slowly. And thats them. It is pretty great to teach and stuff.

We also went to Chuy this week. Chuy is weird. There are a bunch of arabs that live there so if you walk down the street you just hear a bunch of spanish, portuguese, and arabic all kind of mixed together. But that is okay because those are all languages that I want to learn. I bought a passion fruit and ate it. Not a fruit for the weak.

So funny story. We were out proselyting a few days ago and lunch time came around. We decided to stop at a little skate park on the way. Elder Hemeyer just popped his front tire up onto the curb and kept riding, so I thought that I could do the same, but it turns out that I have no skills so the next thing I knew I had flipped over the front handle bars and was lying on my face in the gravel. It was a good experience because it gave me an excuse just to lie on my face in the gravel. Oh and I will also be writing on tuesday next week because Elder Holland is going to be speaking to the mission on monday. Not my freind Elder Jacob Holland the assistant, but rather Elder Jeffery Holland the Apostle, so I will let you know how that goes.

Love Elder Christensen

1)Now I can never run out of sweetened fig pulp. Thank you Brasil. 

2) Maracuyá juice. Brasil, The biggest in the world.

3) The gente in Belloni. We did divisions there this week.

Hi everbody

Hi everybody,

We had a pretty good week this week. I got to explore some more of Rocha which was fun. We actually got bikes this week. They are pretty nice bikes. My legs and back are pretty sore now, so hopefully I will get back in shape. We also took Irma and José to the juzgado to register to get married. It went great and they have to go back on friday the 25th at 1:15 for the marriage. Then hopefully they get baptized a week later. We were also having a hard time finding any new investigators my first couple of weeks here, but then this week we found a whole bunch so that was great. We also got to bike out to this little neighborhood about six miles away called Riviera which is sitiuated at where the arroyo de rocha opens up into la laguna de rocha. Brasileños and argentinos like to come here to spend tranquil vacations on a nice freshwater beach, but there was nobody there because it isn't summer anymore so it turned out to not acutally be an effective use of time.

And yeah. The gospel is true, keeping the commandments is a great way to be happier, and Jesus Christ is our savior.

Love, 

Elder Christensen

 1) Me and Artigas

 2) Me at the Lagoon

3) A not very flattering picture of me in a bike helmet

Hey

Hey everybody.

We are having a great time here. Irma and Josè have grown a lot in faith the last week and we are going to go to the Juzgado tomorrow to register them to get married so that they can get baptized. We also had this mom and daughter come to church yesterday named Rosanna and Yanina and they liked it a lot so we have been working with their family. We have been struggling to find new investigators this last couple of week but we have seen some great miraclesthis week so it is great. Everybody give your moms a big kiss on the mejilla this sunday and tell them that you love them because moms are great.

Un abrazo

Elder Christensen

Rocha

Hey Everybody,

Well changes came this week and I ended my sentence as mission secretary, which was bitter sweet. Had to say good bye to the Eddys, and I didn't have time to despedirme de los investgators which was also kind of sad, But I am really happy about my changes. So I came to the city of Rocha, which is in the department of Rocha, which is about three hours from Montevideo by bus. My New companion is Elder Hemeyer from Mesa Arizona. He is in his very last change of his mission so his goal is to stay strong and focused and not fizzle out. But Rocha is cool it is a city of 30'000 inhabitants and it only has one branch and is part of a district. This is the first time I have ever served in a branch. It is actually kind of lonley, because when I got to the mission there were three companionships in the City and now the number of missionaries world wide is dropping, so they just closed the second to last area in Rocha and now it is just us two and we have do a half whitewash and have the whole city to ourselves, which is great because we will never run out of people to talk to or work to do. And besides that in the zone there are just three other companionships, one in Chuy, one in Castillos, and one in La Paloma, which are all other little cities. So we are the littlest zone.

But yeah we have been working like crazy, we are getting up at six doing all of our studies in the morning and leaving early and working like ten or eleven hour proselyting days, and this is me coming off of the four hour office shedule, so my body is kind of like wasted right now, and also there is less food here, so I see myself losing a lot of wheight in what will probably be my last area. But we had this huge miracle happen. My whole mission it has been really difficult to get people to come to church which is a requirment before baptism, so we have always gone out to pick up investigators before church, but it isn't easy. So this last sunday we had some investigators from the other area named José and Irma who were going to have us come pick them up, and 8:30 comes around and it just starts pouring rain and all of the streets flood instantly and we are thinking, oh no they aren't going to come but we called them and they said they were waiting for us so we go over and get soaked and they walked with us through the rain and stayed all three hours at church, and hopefully they get baptised on june second but please pray for them. And yeah I am super happy.

But anyway mando un beso and hope y'all have a great week

1: Me saying goodbye to Ruben Gabriel other Gabriel and Jorge. Super sad. 

2: Elder Heymer and I. Hopefully I will get some better pictures and a haircut by next week.

Last week in the offices

Well this was my last week in the offices. We had some weird emergency stuff go on in the beggining of the week, so Elder Bórquez, Elder Araújo, and I have been working in a trio all week. It has been rather challenging. This morning we all sat on the couches to plan our day, so that week could face each other, and when we were done I decided to lay down on the coach to study instead of sit up at my desk like we are supposed to and like I always do. So I reached over and grabbed a Libro de Mormón from off of the shelf and flipped it open, and the first thing I saw was Mosiah chapter three verse nineteen, so I got up and went over to my desk to study.

But yeah I would definitely say that the experience of being the secretary of the mission is the hardest thing that I have ever done in my entire life. My mom asked me to list some examples so here are some. Organizing the time that we have to proselyte was extremely challenging because it was very little, and just keeping up with all of the investigators was almost impossible. Dealing with change week was also a challenge because there are so many little things that we have to prepare and not forget. Organizing large groups of people was hard. Making sure that everyone stayed a legal resident is a challenge. Also just going around and dealing with all of the dealings of the office in government buildings and things really brought me out of my comfort zone. And driving in downtown Montevideo gave me a lot of headaches and caused a lot of acute stress.

But that is okay because I learned many things, changed a lot and received a large number of blessings, so thanks offices. And yeah so My pday will now change to monday again, except not this coming monday.

See you,

Love Elder Christensen

WE decided to have an asado today so I dressed up as a gaucho. We did not how ever go to the beach that is an old picture.

Love Elder Christensen

Its me again

Hey everybody!

Well I am writing again and sooner than normal but that is okay. We had a good week. We especially had a cool experience yesterday. We had to stay late in the offices yesterday because we had to finish processing all of the baptismal registries from march, and we were waiting on some missing information. So finally we get out and it starts raining on us which is great because I love rain, and we decided to stop by an investigator that we haven´t seen in a while named Alvaro Sebastián, and he came out to start talking to us, but then his mom told us all to come in because it was raining, ( Mom's are the best). At that point we started talking to him and his cousin Claudia. Now Claudia has a son who is  heavily involved in drugs, and it causes a lot of turbulence and anxiety in her life, and we were able to teach them about the naturaleza de Dios, and the importance of Christ's atonement, and the spirit was felt very strongly, and when we finished she started thanking and congratulating us because she had never felt so much peace from talking to somebody. We were able to explain that those feelings come from the Holy spirit, and then they committed themselves to come to church tomorrow and be baptized. But Claudia is really golden, so pray for them please.

But yeah missionary work is great, I love Jesus Christ, Keep the commandments.

Un gran beso,

Elder Christensen

It is now chilly and april so the beaches are no longer full of sin and temptation and we are permitted to go. Yay!

1) Me eating a chicken curry pinaple empanada at la playa de Malvín with elder Bórquez and Elder Araújo. I love the beach when it is windy and rainy and the water is gray.

2) Elder Holland eating an empanada at the beach

3) Libros de Mormones

General Conference

So I was reading an English grammar text recently and listed a number of English greetings, and then said that in the United States people frequently say Howdy. I don't remember any one ever saying that to me in serious but here it goes:

Howdy Folks,

Well, I sure had the best general conference of my life. I think it was because my mission has broken me down so much that I am now sufficiently humble to receive the simple yet powerful teachings of the latter-day prophets. Or maybe something else. But I especially enjoyed the talk by Brian K. Taylor. I am thinking about giving it to our investigator Carolina because it would help her. If you don't happen to be a member of la Iglesia mormona and didn't see the conference here is the link so that you too can enjoy profound spiritual insights: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/04/media/session_1_talk_6/5761496438001?lang=eng

Also we got a new Brazilian Apostol! Brasiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil! O mais grande do mundo!!! Ordem E Progresso!!! Elder Araújo said he was so filled with joy when it was anounced about Elder Soares that he almost shed tears. Not that nacionality makes any difference in inspired ecclesiastical callings.

Also I just want to say that when I had the opportunity to stand and sustain President Nelson as the new prophet I really felt a strong spiritual confirmation that he is a true prophet. Life is good.

And yeah so we have had an interesting week, We usually find a lot of people who are willing to listen to our message but this week it was just pure rejection. Not really sure what happened. We have been working a lot with Carolina who was supposed to get baptised this week, but the prison visit days for her pareja, and now fiance (Yay! Commandment keeping) Changed to Sunday so she wouldn't be able to come to church to get confirmed. We are not really sure what to do about, but I am confident that at some point in the next few months she will be able to make saving covenants with God and receive the Holy Spirit, so it is okay.

Eu quero viver no uruguai para sempre mas minha mai quer me ver de novo.

1) Brandon Eddy got called to the santiago chile north mission

2) I officially wore a sweater out to preach for the first time this year so I put on a really fake smile and had my picture taken

3) The printer is having problems so I got a cool tatoo

4) Starting to look like fall in Carrasco 

5) I made German Apple Pancakes. They didn't turn out like at home but they were eaten sunday morning for the conference, so justice has been satisfied

6) Elder Hollands mom sent him dried Kuhfleisch, a rare prize this far south.